PUEBLO, CO. - SEPTEMBER 10: National Rifle Association member Ted Bamber waved to passing cars on Prairie Avenue in Pueblo Tuesday afternoon, September 10, 2013. A yes vote indicates support for a recall of State Senator Angelo Giron in District 3. Photo By Karl Gehring/The Denver Post

PUEBLO — State Sen. Angela Giron has been recalled and retired Pueblo deputy police chief George Rivera voted in as her replacement.

With 100 percent of the votes counted, about 56 percent called for Giron to be unseated. About 44 percent voted for her retention, according to final results reported by the Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder.

A stunned Giron conceded just after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We couldn’t have done any more,” she told the crowd gathered at Pueblo Union Depot that had shrunk to about 50 from about 200 at the height of what began as a victory party.

“I’m a little perplexed. This is what I know: I know that I have not one iota of regret from what I voted on,” she said.

Constituents angry about her support of gun control and renewable energy measures for rural electric co-ops that passed in the last legislative session mounted the effort to unseat her.

“This is only going to make us stronger and better,” she said. “We will win in the end, because we are on the right side.”

The crowd chanted “AN-GEL-A” during part of her speech and as she left the stage, the song “Brown Eyed Girl” blared.

She hugged supporters and thanked them.

Giron said she hasn’t yet decided about whether she will run again next year.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” she said. “It was always about trying to do good things for this community, and there’s still so much work to do.”

Vote totals were slow to flow in Tuesday night. Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz blamed the delay on the large number of ballots cast in person. He said typically, about 90 percent of votes are cast by mail. This time, only about 700 of the 34,556 ballots cast were fin early voting.

“Give me back my mail ballots and I can get you some faster results,” he said.

Earlier in the evening, state Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio told the crowd of about 200 people that “regardless of what happens tonight, we owe Angela a debt of gratitude.”

Palacio said the race was about the wishes of Pueblo residents, not outside forces that tried to “hijack our democracy” over the gun rights issue.

Giron and Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs are the first state lawmakers in state history to be recalled. Morse, of Colorado Springs conceded earlier in the night, losing his seat to former Colorado Springs City Councilman Bernie Herpin.

The recall could have a chilling effect in other states, where Democrats have been encouraged by President Barack Obama to pass controls on guns, including background checks, limits on ammunition magazines and other measures.

After the concession speech, Rivera released a statement congratulating Pueblo Freedom and Rights, the group that spurred the Giron’s recall, for its work.

“This election has been about holding our elected officials accountable,” he wrote. “The voters of Pueblo have sent a strong message. We are the voice of democracy.”

But at Pueblo County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday afternoon, Rivera said the recall won’t be the last word. He plans to seek a full term next year.

Giron’s four-year Senate term was up in 2014, so Rivera will face reelection next fall.

“We’ve definitely learned a lot about campaigning,” said Rivera, a first-time political candidate. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that the people are all good people with different points of view. It’s the politics and the politicians who make the whole thing dirty.”

He said he hopes to be in Denver for the next session to provide a record for voters to judge next year.

“Talk is cheap in the big city,” Rivera said.

He said confusion over Tuesday’s election, caused by a mail-ballot bill Giron sponsored, would be fodder for next year’s election.

The confusion over mail ballots and new vote center locations made the Election Day ground game more important than ever, Giron campaign spokeswoman Jennie Peek-Dunstone said.

Giron met with about 60 volunteers at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and then she and a platoon of volunteers began knocking on doors to urge people to vote

The steelworkers’ union hall buzzed with young people and older adults at mid-afternoon.

Ken Milosavica, a1974 graduate of Central High School in Pueblo, kept the mood light and invoked old-school allegiances.

“She went to South,” he said of Giron. “All my girlfriends went to South; I can’t vote against my girlfriends.”

It was markedly calmer pace at Pueblo Freedom and Rights’ recall center, the headquarters for the issue committee that forced Tuesday’s vote.

About 20 volunteers milled around and an organizer referred questions to the Pueblo County Republican Party office.

Outside the headquarters, would-be volunteer Ann Johnson said she was disappointed there was nothing more she could add Tuesday beyond her vote.

Pueblo polling places fielded a steady but unhurried stream of voters through much of the day. Poll workers said there had been no lines or problems that they knew of.

Despite early voting and weeks of intensive campaigning, both sides seemed passionate to the end.

“It’s about trying to intimidate somebody by threatening an election if you can’t get your way on everything,” Giron supporter Elizabeth Martinez said outside the vote center at the El Pueblo History Museum. “It’s childish.”

Jared Davis and Josh Dickinson wore camouflage hunting clothes and waved at passing cars behind a sofa-sized sign that urged votes for Giron’s ouster near the vote center at Pueblo West Library.

They said Giron’s support for gun control was their motivation, but not their only reasons to oppose the incumbent Democrat. They cited her views on renewable energy and Arkansas River water rights as examples.

Downtown Pueblo businessman Steve Marks said the election had been bad for the town.

“It’s bad enough in election years, but this issue has been really rough on people, because it’s about guns, I guess,” he said outside the Pueblo Union Depot Tuesday afternoon. “I wish it hadn’t come up, to tell you the truth. I support gun rights, but I also support Angela, and I support Pueblo.”

Giron appeared to have a theoretical advantage going into the election.

Democrats account for about 47 percent of the district’s 70,719 registered voters, while Republicans have about 23 percent. Unaffiliated voters make up the second largest group, at about 29 percent, according to the county clerk’s office.

Senate District 3 takes in almost all of Pueblo and Pueblo West.

Giron has deep roots in Pueblo, working for 27 years, at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County. Before running for state Senate in 2010, she worked as the regional representative for Democrat U.S. Sens. Ken Salazar and Michael Bennet.She won her first term three years ago with 55 percent of the vote.

Her husband, Steve Nawrocki, is a Pueblo city councilman.

Giron, however, has made some enemies among other Democrats since she took office in 2011, initially supporting a bill that would have sent water from the Arkansas River basin to Colorado Springs and Aurora, as well as as supporting a renewable energy bill that critics say will be expensive for rate payers in areas such as Pueblo West.

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